I have my copies of Operation Cyclone and not disappointed at all!!! The terrain tiles are three with the landing craft on them and then on the reverse……a submarine. Well each tile has a portion of the submarine making the submarine three tiles long. The other three tiles are the snow landscape and then inside a building. The 8 3-D (?) pieces have the seen before building type design on one side that is like a wall and the other side is a walkway that you can use to reach the submarine and I can use in the warehouse I am building for the raised walkways. The “Loaded” markers are clear with the word loaded on them. I think they will be fine. Since they are clear they may be difficult to see. Time will tell. The two heroes… are great looking units. I like the pose of the hero Rosie. She is informing someone that they are number one, which is very nice of her.

SPOILER ALERT

The eight scenarios are very interesting. They are :
1 – Standing on the Beach. Beach Landing
2 – Counterattack. Like it says counter attack with a lot of terrain in the middle of the board
3 – Close the window. Attacker reach a square to cut off enemy reinforcements
4 – Crossroads. Both attack to two squares in the center of the board
5 – They’re here! Attacker starts in the center on the submarine, defender starts on both sides of the sub
6 – An unwelcome surprise. Attackers are ambushed
7 – Rescue the General. Save at least one unit of the command squad that is surrounded
8 – Das Boot. Both sides want to capture the boat but if you attack a hex on the boat with a weapon that can damage the sub, any misses may cause the sub to sink and you lose.

Enough of this typing, I gotta go play.

I am stoked, especially about the Submarine factor. Mine will be arriving Monday.

Thanks for the good news. Keep up the fine work FFG staff.

Sounds good. What baffles me is why so little detail is available on the FFG sites on the games contents, surely the more info they show the more sales they could make? From what I've seen so far about the supplement its seemd a bit naff, but your comment has increased my interest 10 fold.

Yeah i was kind of so so about operation cyclone but knowing there is a submarine makes this set sound great. i still really wish they did not pull the models out of it but what can be done about that.

I agree, I was really frustrated. I couldnt find anything on line. The rules that were released had the pages missing from the rule book covering the scenarios. If they would have left those pages in, I think it would have made much more hype then what has been out there. The idea of the submarine is real cool. Already played scenario one.

You really dont find any information on "Mickey" either a fast, jumping, self repairing 75mm howitzer.

I will quote this from the rule/scenario book too:

"In the following scenarios, we're going to tell the story as it is seen by the Allies, like we did in Operation Blue Thunder. The Axis player can rejoice, however: in the next campaign we'll see the story from another point of view."

I really enjoy "Dust Tactics", so much so that I have purchased everything they have put out so far (and two of the first base set to have extra troops, walkers, and tiles).

What is bothering me is that of the lack of details for the Mickey. Look at the pictures of Mickey on the box of both the walker that she comes in and the box for the "Operation "Cyclone". Mickey has a white star on her side with a circle around said star. However the walker we get is that of "Hot Dog" and "Pounder" at least in that of the decals.

Is this a deal breaker? No, however I did wish they would have included the propper decals for the Mickey or would have waited to release Mickey at another time with the right decals. Now as far as the Axis walker, I have yet to open it up to see if they did the same with one of the Axis walkers.

Like I said, it may be just me but I really like the decals and the details of this game as they do bring allot to the table. For those who did pick up the walker expansions, what are your thoughts? Do not get me wrong, I like the price point but truth be told I would rather buy the Mickey with her decals (as pictured on both the Allied walker box and "Operation "Cyclone" box).

Other than that I am really enjoying this game and look forward to future expansions...

Game on;

-John-

johnwiser said:

i suppose you are right , they should have only provided 3 options rather than 4 for the allies .............of course you could also complain about how the lics on the boxes are usualy the premium figs , so there for why dont they all come prepaited instead of just base coated ............. though you COULD just get the decal sheet put out by dust models .

as for me , i am happy with the expansions as sold . i dont care about the decal issue since i plan to paint mine anyway and will add more decals as needed to make some of them stand out more .

OK, thank you for your point of view. For the record, I picked up two "sticker" sheets from Dust Models, so I could use them in case the unpainted versions did not come with the decals as shown on the painted (or deluxe) versions. So my problem is not with having the decals as it is with the lack of detail.

I am not a painter (Lord, I SO wish I was) and I am going to be looking into finding a way to see if I am able to remove the decals already on the walker so I can use the decals I have to make the Mickey the way she is suppose to look, decals and all. If anyone knows of how to do this, please let me know, I thank you in advance.

What I hope to see with "Dust Tactics" is attention to detail. Yes, the deluxe versions look awesome, I will give them that. And while I may be nit picking because of a few decals, I only do so in hopes that the regular versions do not fall to far behind the deluxe versions.

As far as the whole Mickey issue goes, there are more than one version of the Mickey as the series goes on. There is another version of Mickey that has a huge shovel in the front of it (if I remember right). So why not wait until this is released and put together two or three versions of the Mickey? This is a question only FFG can answer and truth told, I am not trying to make this into a "Who is right?" issue nor do I wish it to become so.

Bottom line, I love "Dust Tactics", as I first posted. I have purchased everything that has been released and will continue to do so. While I may have questions reguarding little issues such as the right decals, it is only because I enjoy this game and "Dust Tactics" universe itself. I fully understand that the deluxe version is going to be the cream of the crop, and I have no issues with that. All I wanted to do was point out what I thought could make this even better and this is one of those little things.

Game on;

-John-

This post is the nearest thing to a review ive found of this expansion anywhere on the net (dissapointing). ive been holding off investing in some more dust tactics models until this came out in the uk - just found its available to purchase... horray!

Although its given me more information about this expansion it does not seem to answer wether this expansion is worth getting...

2 questions

what are the special characters like - how do they play?

do the scenarios add anything else extra to the game?

Panzerfaust101 said:

special characters are good. rosie can fully repair a vehicle once per game and has a bazooka. manfred has 5 wounds and assault, so is an infantry delivery system basically.

the scenarios are good. they increased all scenarios from Blue Thunders 3 x 3 boards to 4x3 in Cyclone. 4 indoor and 4 outdoor scenarios. and they give you a submarine to fight over.

Panzerfaust101 said:

Panzerfaust101 said:

1) the american hero adds single use tankhead to the americans , and the german hero has 5 life and unlimted panzerfausts . they are good to add some longevity , but as with the other heros , they dont break the game or do anything super important .

2) the scenarios use larger maps , and larger points values , and for those that want to stick to the maps , they add some nice terrain features like the sub pen , and the landing craft .

GrandInquisitorKris said:

These folks know their Dust!

One thing that I might point out to anyone that is interested, is that from what I've read in my scenario book the games are much bigger.

Scenario 1, standing on the beach requires 12 points of walkers, (equating to 3 until the light variants are released) and 18 points of infantry. The core set has 8 points of infantry for each faction, (I'm including the heroes in this) and 8 of robots.

First of all, you're going to need an additional medium walker.

Then, moving on to the infantry requirements, If you purchase:

Observers/snipers

command squad

then hopefully these will at least add up to about 6 points, (although this is purely hypothetical, as I assume that - like me - no one outside of FFG has seen the cards for these new units yet!)

So let's say we have these squads and that they do turn out to cost 6 points. Along with the core set, we're now sitting at 14 points of infantry for each faction. Throw in the 2 heroes you get with OC, Rosie and Manfred.

16 points.

You're going to need another unit of infantry in order to meet the scenario level.

While I'm sure it's not totally necessary to meet the points requirements in friendly games, (unless you're actually playing against an Axis army controlled by the REAL Hitler) I have no doubt that playing with fewer figures will impair your enjoyment.

I suppose that what I'm trying to say, is that I would fatten out my starter set before picking operation cyclone up and this is NOT a criticism of the game.

Once you've played a game of Dust, you'll scoop up all the expansions anyway

Are all the scenario forces bigger?

Major Mishap said:

yes. 24-30 points

Looks like I'll wait a while to get this then, don't really want to duplicate units.

Except the barbecue squad. If awesome was a soldier, then it would carry a shotgun, flamethrower and demo charges.

But I play the Germans..oops sorry Axis (I guess the game designers have a bit of a hang up calling races what they are ) and the BBQ squad is often top priority to eliminate.

K, guy's i'm trying to RE-Dust this topic (Ha!Joke!) for a small question. Is Operation Cylone worth the buck? I wouldn't even consider it with the revised core set, but let's say that i will menage to get my hands on old core set. Is there some fluff inside? Or only scenario book, few map pieces and 2 heroes? Are the scenarios enough fun to pay for them such a price? I'm trying to get the most fun witchout getting the both core sets at once and spending too much $

Cyclone is definitely the campaign expansion that adds the least to the overall game. The landing craft and submarine tiles are cool, but really little more than fluff, nothing that really changes the gameplay like the buildings in either SeeLowe or Cerberus. The book doesn't come with any fluff, just some new rules that you get in the Revised Rulebook anyway. As for the heroes, they are cool, but again, not really game changers. The scenarios are a bit of a mixed bag. Some of them are really cool and quite epic, like the beach landing and the business around the submarine. But some of the "reach this square and win" missions are a bit broken in my opinion.

That said, I would still get the expansion, if you can spare the cash. Rosie is a really cool hero, and quite effective on the battlefield, being able to take out a medium walker with a single shot, and rescuing damaged tanks with her Tank Head skill. My axis opponent also gets good use out of Manfred, using his Assault to give a squad a much-needed speed boost.

Lska said:

The map tiles work with the Revised Core Set, and the landing craft and sub tiles give a nice addition for scenario options. I like the campaign book, and the heroes are very nice to add to either force.

Manfred isn't a powerhouse, but an unlimited panzerfaust, Assault, and five damage points can add a lot to a squad for only 16 points.

Rosie gives you the improved bazooka and Tank Head with four damage points for 20 points, so she can be very nice in a walker heavy force.

Is it a must have for a player on a budget? Possibly not, but it is worth picking up when you have a chance? Definitely yes.

I would say grab it just for the heroes, I use Manfred more then any other hero his 5 wounds and assault is great for spearheading your forces and Rosie is great for taking on axis walkers.

Lska said:

As you're in Poland and I'll assume that "Dust stuff" is more expensive there, I wouldn't put Cyclone in the "must have" pile. The heroes are nice, and I personally love the tiles, but I'd pick up Seelowe for the powerhouses that are Ozz and Markus and for the building tiles. IMO, it is more bang for the buck, and if you pick up a squad of gorillas and a squad of (insert Armor 3 jumping Allied unit here), it will change the dimension of your game quite a bit.

Thx for the anwserws guys! That's a rly hard decision for me but i'm considering sticking to more WW II squads than gorillas,sc-fi stuff for my first few months witch the game ( if i will get the damned core set) Especially beacouse i won't get more than 1 walker and 1 bonus squad per side and the new ones are somewhat hard to get. So i'm thinking 1 hvy inf and medium walker per side, or a comand squad if i get one;)

For price comparisons squad costs about 15$ here and both old addons around 35-40$ so it's the same price like in the west i think.